


Of water and earth

by midnightflame



Series: Sheith Positivity Week 2017 [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Naked Cuddling, Sheith Positivity Week 2017, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 12:13:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11646336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightflame/pseuds/midnightflame
Summary: He swims in sound, swims in memories as his eyes drift closed, and sleep lures him deeper. He swims in those here-and-now moments just like this one, letting the seconds slide over his skin like salt water. Shiro’s body is warm beneath his own, all sun-dappled waves and summer splendor, with his chest rising and falling steadily. Fingers continue to riffle through his hair, then with a huff of laughter again that shakes Shiro’s arms, he moves his hands and sets fingers to gliding down along Keith’s spine. The touch has him arching into Shiro, head lifting from its place over his heart and drawing Keith’s gaze upward.“What do you keep laughing about?”[Sheith Positivity Week 2017 - Swimming/Hiking]





	Of water and earth

**Author's Note:**

> Life got me a little busier than expected yesterday on some things so here it is a day late but completed!

He is swimming in sound. 

Beneath his fingertips, Shiro’s heart sings quietly of his life. One beat after another, it spills into a steady rhythm that has Keith smiling against his chest. It’s the siren call he’d gladly follow, diving in recklessly to hear more of it, to hold it and know it for all its worth. 

It reminds him of how someone had told him once that to love was to die.

And Keith knows there are things in life worth drowning for, but sometimes. . .sometimes those very same things are the ones that have you drifting over the waves instead, alive and well beneath a starlit sky and a moon calling you home. They’re the things that buoy you through storm-whipped seas, keeping the monsters of the deep from ever claiming your soul. 

Shiro is like that. 

So, Keith closes his eyes, and he listens to the steadfast rhythm of the heart buried within Shiro’s chest. He listens to the laughter that comes out gently over Shiro’s lips but still somehow manages to rumble through his core. 

He listens to the quiet murmurs as fingers thread through his hair. 

_“I’m not going anywhere.”_

_“You said it once, so say it again. . .”_

_“Keith. . .that thing you’re always listening to. . .it’s yours. . .”_

He swims in sound, swims in memories as his eyes drift closed and sleep lures him deeper. He swims in those here-and-now moments just like this one, letting the seconds slide over his skin like salt water. Shiro’s body is warm beneath his own, all sun-dappled waves and summer splendor, with his chest rising and falling steadily. Fingers continue to riffle through his hair, then with a huff of laughter again that shakes Shiro’s arms, he moves his hands and sets fingers to gliding down along Keith’s spine. The touch has him arching into Shiro, head lifting from its place over his heart and drawing Keith’s gaze upward.

“What do you keep laughing about?”

Shiro hums softly as a smile overtakes his lips. He looks beautiful, Keith thinks. A thought that strikes his mind as quickly as lightning and just as illuminating. It stills his breath, not just eager anticipation but a soft-spoken awe for the sight putting a sudden halt to it all. Because there’s a warmth in Shiro’s gaze that reminds him of bonfires gilding desert sands and hot chocolate served in battered tin cups. It’s happiness that Keith sees in those gray eyes, one that’s spun itself out of his very existence. And there’s something almost damning about knowing you have that effect on someone else - to know that in your hands, their heart beats. Whisper, and it quiets to listen. Put that flicker of flame in your eyes and a little heat on your tongue, and it'll quicken with the promise of more. 

Keith has seen all of that play out with Shiro, time and time again. 

Someone told him once that love was death, but it’s not. 

Not entirely. 

Because when he lays here with Shiro, with their bodies planted together and his heart climbing its way to meet the only other counterpart it has known, Keith feels grounded. He feels life coursing through him the way green flourishes over the land, encapsulating pockets of the world with reminders that everything lives, even in death. 

So there are moments when he perishes beneath Shiro’s touch - hands to his hips, bodies interconnected, souls weaving - and Keith gives over everything he has ever called his own to the man whispering his name like it’s the only one he has ever known. Then the calm settles in, and the sound wraps around him just as the ocean embraces the earth, and life starts to spark again. 

Fingers walk the length of his hand, finding new pathways over skin as they hike ever higher. They stop to examine closer - that scar over his bicep; they leap across the chasm running between his chest and arm, and continue on to the bridge of his neck. And when they find his lips, where Shiro rests his thumb lightly against the lower one, Keith smiles.

“What am I laughing about?” Shiro muses as he slides his thumb along the curve of Keith’s lip, then brushes his knuckles across his cheek lightly. A simple touch but it puts a tumult of a flutter in his heart like a thousand birds have just taken flight from Keith’s chest all at once. 

Shiro laughs again, the smile warm as it spreads across his lips. “I keep looking for the endings, but all I find are the beginnings. I keep waiting for the universe to tell me I don’t get to have this, but here you are. ”


End file.
